Alpacapalooza!

We're taking a week off & having a great time. We spent the first weekend at Alpacapalooza in Puyallup WA. I love these animals. . . always have, and I'm hoping that life will take us in a slightly different direction so that we can actually *have* a couple of them. (There are many steps along the way to this goal, beginning with the fact that we live in town and aren't zoned for such pursuits. If things go as we hope, that will change.)

The part of Alpacapalooza that we spent the most time at was the judging. It was just like a dog show, but with alpacas instead (but the judges don't have to prance them around). The beasties are inspected for quality of fleece and conformity to standards, and the winners receive ribbons and encouragement to reproduce. The highest prized ones command many $$$$$ in price or stud fees. We would be looking more for a couple of healthy pets that I could shear annually, so we wouldn't be breeding, at least not to start. As it turned out, we have friends in the business (that we didn't even realize). . . long-lost contacts which we hope to resume.

So here are a couple of photos of the sweet little ones that we saw. There are two varieties here, regular alpacas & suri (no relation to Suri Cruise). The suris have longer locks, rather like silky dreadlocks. They're all beautiful & charming.

After our fun in Puyallup we headed to southern Washington. We're in White Salmon (hubby picked this spot) which is just across the bridge from Hood River, Oregon. I got to go to Knot Just Another Hat yarn store in Hood River, and met fellow blogger, Yvonne at http://www.lavendersheep.blogspot.com who, it appears, is living a life parallel to mine. We both teach spinning at our respective LYS's and we both hand dye yarns for sale at our LYS's. (She is much younger, though.) What a joy to get acquainted. :-)

Our other point of interest was the Stonehenge replica in Maryhill WA, just up the road from White Salmon. It is a war memorial constructed in memory of WWI soldiers, and it was constructed by (I'm not kidding) Sam Hill.

Tomorrow we head on to Oregon.